A Surprise at Joanns

I went to Joanns to buy the green satiny fat quarter bundle I've seen there for the longest time. I bought the other ones (pink and brown) nearly two years ago and the green, to my surprise, has been there all this time all by itself. It was still marked $9.99 but I didn't care, I wanted them for my next string piecing project.

When I got to the sales counter it wouldn't ring up. The clerk entered the code and after no success asked for help. The manager came over with a spool of ribbon and said, "Well, it's going to be $2.99" and promptly scanned the UPC. Much to my surprise and delight, the ribbon was on sale, and I paid just $1.97 for 4 satiny, beautiful fat quarters. =D

The Godfather of Prairie Points

I was making my prairie points and taking pictures of them (I take pictures of everything, it's a habit) over the weekend. Meanwhile my husband was watching "The Godfather". I had to chuckle as I looked at the picture that came out.

(Look in the background)

String Pieced Quilt Finished

I finished this on Sunday night but I haven't had a chance to post it. I'm really happy with how it came out, although it is looking slightly more gold than I planned (maybe my hubby was right about the black/gold border!)

I decided last minute that I didn't like the fabric I chose for the backing, it was just kinda boring; and I didn't like the way my quilting stitches came out... so I improvised and made a faux backing. Instead of hand stitching the backing down after sewing on the prairie points, I cut away some of the real backing and then just made a new one and hand sewed it around the edges. I'm so much happier with it now.

I took it to work with me and my boss kind of decided that it needed to stay there for a week. :)

Anyway, here it is.

String Pieced Top Finished

I *love* this quilt! I just finished the top and have it tacked down and ready to begin quilting or tieing, I'm not sure yet what I will do. I cannot machine quilt yet and I'm afraid to try and hand quilt it... I don't have the confidence yet. I'm thinking of tieing it with invisible thread and then hiding the ends on the inside.

It was pieced onto a muslin foundation and the backing is another satin fabric that a co-worker, Shu Yi, brought me from China. I wasn't going to add batting because of the muslin foundation, but I realized that the borders wouldn't have any thing in between them and the backing, so I added the batting anyway. It should make for a fairly heavy small quilt. The borders are a black fabric with gold roses. My husband wrinkled his nose at me when I told him I was going to use it but now he agrees that it was the right fit. Funny enough, I used this fabric for the lining of a tote that I made for Shu Yi last year.

I'm thrilled with this quilt and I just can't even believe how fancy it looks. Now I'm not afraid of the satin type fabrics I ooh and ahh over. I have a place for them now and they better watch out! (click picture for details).

More Strings

I made two more string blocks last night. I really love the way they look. I started having a hard time sewing a straight line and keeping everything flat.. but it was 2:30 am so I figured I better stop and pick it up after I gave my brain a rest. My favorite is the first block on the left, the size of the strips are perfect. I threw all my strips in a box and I close my eyes, reach in and grab one and don't argue with myself about using it or not, unless it's a duplicate I've decided I have to use it. With that said, I think it's funny how some of the strips ended up in the same spots in each block. Makes it look like I did it on purpose. (Click to see a larger picture of the details).

Bento Box

I won this pattern and fabric at a raffle fundraiser for the adoption agency I work for last year. I've finally washed the FQs and plan on cutting soon. I'm looking forward to it. The fabric are all Asian prints and really beautiful. Thanks Denise! :)

Bug Jar Swap

I've joined a Bug Jar swap with the girls on About.com. But I didn't join the bug category. ;)

I joined fruits and veggies and novelty. I found cherries and am looking forward to see how they look in their jars. I also found strawberries, but I didn't buy them because I'm not sure if strawberries can be "jarred". I am feeling stumped about what I'll find for the novelty category, but I think it will be fun to find the perfect fabric.

I'm really excited, this is my first quilting swap! :)

More current projects

So now I'm working on a quilt for my youngest daughter, Isabella. It's just plain squares with appliquéd hearts. I did a machine buttonhole stitch around the inner heart, and a hand sewn running stitch around the outer. Since I'm not working from a pattern I'm at a bit of a roadblock with this one for now. It takes me time to figure out what I will do next.


I also found an old UFO from a lonng time ago. I had sewn these fabrics together with the intention of making a rail fence lap quilt, but then I decided to cut the blocks in half and move them around to make a different design. I came to another road block when I realized that my points weren't matching up in the middle. I stuffed it all away and never thought about it again until now. I think it's time to resurrect these blocks because I *really* love the fabrics.

New String Blocks

I'll get right to it: I've fallen in love with string piecing. Here's a picture of the blocks I made tonight to test it out. The first is a small 4 inch block and the second is a 10 inch block. I love it! I've had these fabrics around for a long time but never used them because they were just too hard to work with. But sewing them onto a foundation piece (I'm using 99cent muslin) is proving to work perfectly. I can't wait to get this finished and up on my wall.

Update: Dresden Plate

Tonight I finished all the cutting on the Dresden Plate blades. I wanted to see what one plate would look like so I sewed one and I'm so happy with it! My husband says the blades look like little neck ties. They are so cute.


I can't wait to get this all finished. It's very easy, but just many small steps and slightly time consuming. It's great that all the blades are cut because I can work on it when I just want to be at my sewing machine without thinking much.

I've wanted to do a Dresden Plate for a long time... I'm really really happy to finally be doing it.

I have 380 blades left to sew and then 19 plates left to complete. Once I'm done with all that I can cut my blocks and start the appliqué. I think I will do a small button hole stitch to attach the plates to the blocks.

Coat of Many Colors

I was reminded tonight of the song "Coat of Many Colors" by Dolly Parton. I'm not a big DP fan, but I do remember my mom having her greatest hits on cassette and listening to it often and this was one of my favorites. It's just a really sweet song.

My next project: Dresden Plate

I've decided that I want to make a Dresden Plate quilt for my queen size bed. I had tossed around the ideas of a Log Cabin but I just keep being drawn to the Dresden Plate pattern. I'm doing the Egg Money Quilts pattern with 20 blades to each plate. The cool thing is: I'm using only 10 fat quarters for all 400 blades. I measured and drafted everything and decided I could get 40 blades to 1 FQ. And one plate of 20 blades will only have 2 of each fabric. Yada yada yada, I'm going on and on with all the hodge podge in my brain, but it helps me to get it out so I can remember my methods later.

I had bought a few FQs about a year ago (everything was about a year ago since it's been about that long that I've been sewing) that I just really loved and was saving them for the perfect pattern. I think the Dresden Plate is what I was waiting for.

Tonight I am cutting the blades, a time consuming but simple task. I can't believe that when I'm finished I'll have 400+ of them! Perhaps I wont get all of them cut tonight, but definitely by the beginning of the weekend.

Kaylee's New Quilt (Finally!)

On Monday night my daughter was trying to find something that started with the letter Q or R for sharing day at school. She walked through the house sounding it out and said, "Qu-Qu-Quilt! I can take a quilt to school!"

Right away I was feeling guilty for not having finished her quilt from a year ago. I had been putting it off because I wasn't working from a pattern, a year ago I wasn't cutting so carefully, and the whole top was just a little off. I had basted it a couple of times with the pieced backing I made but always ended up taking it apart because I was just too afraid that there would be puckers if I quilted it.


I decided I had waited long enough and at 7pm started on finishing her quilt. After basting, tieing (to resolve the feared puckering problem), and trimming the edges it was finally ready for binding. I made my own binding and hand sewed it on. Finally at 1:30am I was finished and just SO happy that it was done. It was so much easier than I had imagined it to be!

In the morning my daughter was very happy to have it and as we were driving to school she said, "I bet I'm the only one that will be sharing a quilt today!" She was proud to show it, and I was happy that she was showing her class the quilt her mama made for her.


After a year and a half in the making, I can check this UFO off my list.

And there's just something so appealing to me about a folded quilt.

My first quilt

I made this when I was 16 from a pattern in a quilting magazine. My mom cut the fabric for me and I machine pieced and quilted it. I didn't baste first, everything came out pretty puckered and some edges got completely skewed, but I still like it. My daughters both used this when they were babies and they use it now for their "babies".

Lint, lint, everywhere!

I thought I would try to clean my sewing machine since I've had it for nearly three years and it's not been maintenanced or cleaned yet. What I found was a lint monster hiding under my bobbin.

Before:









After:









Lint Monster:









The moral to this story: Clean your sewing machine! :)

Flying Geese Tutorial

I just thought I would post pictures of how I made my flying geese. I mostly took these pics so I could go back and refer to them for next time. This is for the traditional method.

I started with a 6 1/4 quarter square triangle and two 3 3/8 half square triangles. Lay the 3 3/8 trinalge on the 6 1/4 triangle, right sides facing. It doesn't matter what side you start on.


Sew the two pieces together and press open towards the smaller triangle. Do not cut the "wings" yet.

Lay the other 3 3/8 triangle on the 6 1/4 triangle, right sides together. Sew and press open towards the smaller triangle.

Check your angles and if everything is straight cut off the wings and you'll have a perfect Flying Geese unit.

Nearly Complete

I continued sewing through the week and the quilt top for Baby S is finished.

There were some problems with squaring up the blocks so don't look too close or you'll see where I made some mistakes. But overall, I'm really pleased with how it came out.

I wasn't going to add the friendship stars although I had already sewn them. I was afraid to cut the red border and end up with misaligned edges. But I decided that I didn't want to always see the quilt and remember that I didn't completely finish it. I'm glad that I ended up adding them; they came out just right and give the borders the pop they need.

I will add the backing sometime during the week and tie off the quilt. I am worried to "quilt" it because the top is wavy and I'm afraid there could be problems; tieing seems safer to me. *EDIT: I still haven't finished it, but now I'm considering sending it out to be free motion quilted instead of relying on myself to finish this quilt. I think it deserves to be quilted.

And this does seem pretty girly, so I am going to try and make another quilt in neutral or "boy" colors just in case. But I think that Baby S' mom wants this one anyway. ;)